Adult Dependent Relative Visa
The Adult Dependent Relative route is for certain adult relatives of a qualifying person in the UK who, because of age, illness or disability, require long-term personal care to perform everyday tasks and cannot obtain the required level of care in the country where they live — even with the practical and financial help of their UK sponsor. A first application must normally be made from outside the UK; a person cannot switch into the route from inside the UK.
On this page
- A Demanding Care Test
- At a Glance
- Who Can Apply
- Who Can Sponsor
- Applying From Outside the UK
- The Long-Term Care Requirement
- Care Unobtainable Overseas
- Parents/Grandparents as a Couple
- Examples From the Guidance
- UK Maintenance, Accommodation & Care
- The Sponsor Undertaking
- What Is Granted
- Suitability & Article 8
- ADR Self-Review
- Common Misunderstandings
- Case Law
- FAQs
- How ENS Can Help
The Adult Dependent Relative route has a demanding, care-based eligibility test. It is not enough that the applicant is elderly, lives alone, would prefer to live with family in the UK, or receives financial support from a UK relative. The route requires both: (1) a need for long-term personal care to perform everyday tasks because of age, illness or disability; and (2) that the required care cannot be obtained in the country where the applicant lives — even with the sponsor's practical and financial help — because it is unavailable, no person can reasonably provide it, or it is unaffordable.
In brief
- The Adult Dependent Relative route is for certain adult relatives who need long-term personal care and cannot obtain it where they live.
- A first application must normally be made from outside the UK — you cannot switch in.
- It turns on the care need, care being unobtainable overseas, and the sponsor’s ability to maintain, accommodate and care.
- The guide helps identify whether ADR is the right route — it does not decide eligibility.
At a Glance
| Requirement | Source-led position |
|---|---|
| Applicant | An adult relative of the UK sponsor. |
| First application | Must be made from outside the UK. |
| Switching into ADR in the UK | Not permitted. |
| Qualifying relatives | Parent, grandparent, son/daughter, brother/sister. |
| Sponsor age | 18 or over. |
| Sponsor status | British, settled, protection status, or specified qualifying Appendix EU status. |
| Core care test | Long-term personal care required due to age, illness or disability. |
| Everyday tasks | Examples include washing, dressing and cooking. |
| Overseas-care test | Required care unavailable / no person can reasonably provide it / unaffordable. |
| Sponsor help | Practical and financial help must be considered. |
| UK maintenance / accommodation / care | All required, without recourse to public funds. |
| Sponsor undertaking | Required. |
| British / settled sponsor | Normally settlement on a successful entry-clearance application. |
| Limited-status qualifying sponsor | Limited permission in line with the sponsor. |
| Fees / IHS / processing | Confirm on GOV.UK (not covered by this guidance). |
Which Relatives Can Qualify?
Appendix ADR identifies the applicant as one of the following relatives of the UK sponsor: parent, grandparent, son or daughter, or brother or sister.
Not every dependent adult relative is within Appendix ADR. Aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, parents-in-law and other extended relatives are not within the permitted categories — the relationship itself must fall within them.
Who Can Be the UK Sponsor?
At the date of application the sponsor must be at least 18 years old and must be one of: a British citizen in the UK; a person present and settled in the UK; a person in the UK with protection status; or a qualifying EEA or Swiss national with the specified Appendix EU limited leave.
Can I Apply From Inside the UK?
For a first ADR application, no. The applicant must be outside the UK and cannot switch into the route from within the UK — a person seeking to come to the UK in this category must obtain entry clearance before arrival.
This applies to a first application. Appendix ADR also has provisions for further permission to stay and settlement for people who already hold ADR permission in the UK — particularly where the sponsor initially held limited qualifying status.
The Applicant Must Require Long-Term Personal Care
Because of age, illness or disability, the applicant must need long-term personal care to perform everyday tasks — the Home Office gives examples such as washing, dressing and cooking — and must be incapable of performing such tasks for themselves.
Being elderly is not enough by itself — age must result in a need for long-term personal care with everyday tasks. Likewise, having a diagnosis is not enough by itself — the condition must create the required functional care need.
The care need may have developed recently (for example after a serious accident causing long-term incapacity) or gradually over several years — there is no fixed minimum period of prior care need. The required level of care is assessed objectively by reference to the particular applicant, including their physical, emotional and psychological needs where established by evidence from a doctor or other health professional.
Medical evidence is central
The route expressly requires medical evidence, from a doctor or other health professional, demonstrating that the applicant's physical or mental condition means they require long-term personal care because they cannot perform everyday tasks. The Entry Clearance Officer can also refer an applicant for medical examination by an approved professional where appropriate.
A useful medical report should address the applicant's functional care needs — what tasks they cannot perform, what help is needed and why it is long-term — rather than merely list diagnoses.
Does your relative need help with everyday personal-care tasks because of age, illness or disability?
Review the Long-Term Care RequirementThe Required Care Must Not Be Reasonably Obtainable Overseas
Even where the applicant clearly requires long-term personal care, that alone is not enough. The applicant must show that the required level of care cannot be obtained in the country where they live — even with the practical and financial help of the UK sponsor — because the care is not available, there is no person who can reasonably provide it, or it is not affordable.
Care must be realistically accessible
Availability is not assessed only in the abstract. The decision maker considers what care exists, whether it is realistically accessible to the applicant, its geographical location and its cost. "There is a care home somewhere in the country" does not necessarily answer whether the applicant can realistically access the required care — but equally, if the required care is actually available and affordable, the application should be refused.
A sponsor's preference to provide the care personally in the UK does not establish that adequate care cannot be arranged overseas. The Home Office must consider whether the care could instead be secured where the applicant lives with the sponsor's practical and financial help — for example, a UK son sending money so his father can pay a daily carer. Because that arrangement provides the required care, it would not meet the ADR criteria.
Who might reasonably provide care overseas?
Potential carers can include a son, daughter, brother, sister, parent, grandchild, grandparent, wider family member, friend, neighbour, home-help, housekeeper, nurse, professional carer, care home or nursing home. Where several close relatives live in that country, their resources may be pooled to provide the required care. Whether someone can "reasonably" provide care is fact-specific — the Home Office considers where they live, their own circumstances and commitments, whether they are willing, whether existing care is genuinely temporary, and whether circumstances have changed. The arrangement must be reasonable from the perspective of both the carer and the applicant, and relevant cultural factors can be considered.
This is not a rule that any relative overseas defeats the application. The question is whether that person can reasonably provide the required level of care. Where care has already been provided, that may suggest it can continue — but evidence that it was only temporary, or that circumstances have materially changed, must be properly considered.
Proving care is unavailable
Evidence should come from sources such as a central or local health authority, a local authority, or a doctor or other health professional in the country concerned. Where care was previously provided through a private arrangement, provide details of that arrangement and why it is no longer available.
Proving care is unaffordable
Unaffordability can satisfy the overseas-care limb, but where care has previously been paid for, the Home Office examines records of previous or current payments and why they cannot continue. Where support has come from the sponsor or other UK close family, explain why that support cannot continue or is no longer sufficient to secure the required care.
It is not enough to say care is expensive. The application must address why the required level of care is genuinely unaffordable even with available family support.
Detailed guide. The two care tests — the long-term personal-care need and whether the required care is obtainable overseas — are covered in depth, with medical and care evidence, the Home Office examples, a care evidence matrix and a self-review tool, on our Long-Term Personal Care & Overseas Care Requirement page. For what evidence proves each requirement and how to organise the bundle, see the ADR Evidence & Documents page; and for the adequate-maintenance calculation, accommodation and the sponsor undertaking, see the ADR Maintenance, Accommodation & Sponsor Undertaking page. If the ordinary Rules are not met, the ADR Exceptional Circumstances & Article 8 page covers the Article 8 route.
ADR cases often turn on whether the required care can realistically be obtained overseas — not simply whether UK family would provide better care.
Review Overseas Care EvidenceCan Both Parents or Grandparents Apply Together?
Potentially. Where both members of a couple are the sponsor's parents or grandparents and they apply together as ADRs, only one of them needs to require long-term personal care — but both must apply at the same time, and the partner must be unable to provide the required care.
Where the applicant is the sponsor's parent or grandparent, they must not be in a subsisting relationship with a partner unless that partner is also the sponsor's parent or grandparent and is applying as an ADR at the same time. An ADR parent or grandparent cannot ordinarily leave a subsisting partner behind and apply alone.
Examples From the Home Office Guidance
Illustrative only — each says a case "could meet" or "does not meet" the criteria, not that it automatically qualifies.
Could meet — young adult with a learning disability
A 25-year-old with a learning disability who cannot feed, wash or dress himself, has recently lost both parents, is temporarily cared for by family friends who can no longer continue, has a brother in the UK, and cannot afford suitable full-time residential care overseas even with sponsor assistance — could meet the criteria where the overseas-care test and other requirements are established.
Could meet — new care need after a serious accident
A 30-year-old who develops a long-term condition after a road accident and can no longer care for himself, whose mother in the UK has temporarily travelled to care for him but must return — could meet the criteria if the overseas-care test and other requirements are proved. ADR is not limited to elderly parents.
Could meet — elderly couple applying together
An elderly couple where the wife needs long-term personal care, the husband is healthy but cannot provide the level of care she needs, their daughter in the UK can provide the care, and UK family can maintain and support them — could meet the criteria if the overseas-care requirement and other requirements are established.
Does not meet — care already arranged overseas
A son in the UK funds a daily carer for his father overseas to help with washing, dressing and cooking. Because the required care is being arranged in the home country, this does not meet the criteria.
Does not meet — parent with a healthy spouse overseas
A disabled parent living with a new husband overseas does not meet the criteria, because they are in a subsisting relationship with a partner who is not also the sponsor's qualifying parent applying at the same time.
UK Maintenance, Accommodation and Care
Even if both care tests are satisfied, the application must also show that the applicant will be adequately maintained, accommodated and cared for in the UK without recourse to public funds. This is an express ADR eligibility requirement.
Adequate maintenance — no £29,000 threshold
The ADR route does not use the Partner Visa £29,000 minimum income requirement. It is subject to the adequate-maintenance framework: broadly, whether after income tax, National Insurance and housing costs the family has resources at least equivalent to the applicable Income Support level. The amount is case-specific. Maintenance may come from the sponsor, or a combination of funds available to the sponsor and applicant — but promises of third-party support are not accepted, because they are vulnerable to changes in another person's circumstances. Adequate Maintenance Requirement →
UK care plan
The application must explain how the applicant will actually be cared for in the UK — the planned care arrangements, any involvement of other UK family members, the cost of those arrangements, and how the sponsor will meet that cost. In practice that means addressing: where the applicant will live; who will provide day-to-day care; whether professional care will be used; what tasks need assistance and how often; the cost; and how it will be funded.
Adequate accommodation
The proposed UK accommodation must be owned by, or occupied exclusively by, the sponsor, and adding the applicant must not breach statutory overcrowding rules or public-health requirements. Adequate Accommodation Requirement →
Can the sponsor maintain, accommodate and fund the applicant's care without public funds?
Review ADR Financial RequirementsThe Sponsor Must Sign a Maintenance Undertaking
Where the sponsor is British or settled, the sponsor must undertake responsibility for the applicant's maintenance, accommodation and care for 5 years from the applicant's arrival in the UK, where the applicant is granted settlement. Where the sponsor has qualifying limited status, the undertaking lasts for the period of permission granted in line with the sponsor.
The undertaking carries a real financial responsibility — it is not simply a support letter. If the applicant receives public funds during the undertaking period, the UK Government may seek recovery from the sponsor who signed it.
What Is Granted?
Where a person successfully applies for ADR entry clearance and the sponsor is British or settled, the applicant is granted settlement — qualifying ADRs of British or settled sponsors receive immediate settled status. This is a distinguishing feature of the route; it is not a standard 30-month family visa where the sponsor is already British or settled.
Where the sponsor holds one of the qualifying limited statuses (for example protection status or the qualifying Appendix EU limited leave), the applicant may receive limited permission in line with the sponsor, and can potentially apply for settlement in line when the sponsor later applies for settlement, subject to the relevant requirements. Temporary ADR permission is granted subject to no access to public funds; work is permitted (including self-employment and voluntary work); and study is permitted, subject to the applicable ATAS condition.
Suitability and Article 8
ADR applications must also satisfy the applicable suitability requirements. Separately, where the ordinary eligibility requirements are not met, the decision maker must consider whether refusal would breach Article 8 because it would result in unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant or affected family members. "Exceptional" does not merely mean unusual or unique, and narrowly missing the Rules is not enough — the assessment is one of proportionality under Article 8.
Article 8 family life between adult relatives is fact-sensitive — factors can include age, health, vulnerability, the closeness and history of the family relationship, and financial or emotional dependency, as well as cultural traditions and circumstances in the applicant's country. A biological relationship alone does not automatically create protected Article 8 family life between adults.
Adult Dependent Relative Self-Review
Tick what applies. The review surfaces areas your case may need to address — it does not decide whether the ADR requirements are met or predict a Home Office decision.
Guide only — not an eligibility decision. No score, chance or verdict is produced.
Common ADR Misunderstandings
"My parent is elderly, so they qualify."
No — the route requires a long-term personal-care need arising from age, illness or disability.
"My parent lives alone, so they qualify."
Not necessarily — the Home Office examines whether relatives, friends, neighbours, paid carers or facilities can reasonably provide the required care.
"I want to care for my parent personally in the UK."
Preference for UK family care does not replace showing that adequate care cannot reasonably be obtained overseas.
"Care is available but expensive."
The evidence must explain why the required care cannot be paid for even with the sponsor's help.
"I already send money for a carer — that helps."
It can actually show the required care is obtainable overseas if that arrangement is sustainable; the guidance gives such a case as failing.
"Any adult relative can apply."
No — Appendix ADR limits the qualifying relationship categories.
"I'll bring my parent as a visitor and switch."
A first ADR application must be made from outside the UK.
"I need £29,000 salary."
No — ADR uses the adequate-maintenance framework, not the Partner Visa minimum-income threshold.
Case Law Referenced by the Home Office Guidance
Britcits v SSHD [2017] EWCA Civ 368
On 24 May 2017 the Court of Appeal upheld the lawfulness of the Adult Dependent Relative Rules, and the current guidance takes that judgment into account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can apply as an Adult Dependent Relative?
The applicant must be the sponsor's parent, grandparent, son/daughter or brother/sister and meet the other ADR requirements.
Can I sponsor my aunt or uncle?
That relationship is not included in the Appendix ADR relationship categories.
Can an elderly parent qualify just because they live alone?
No. They must require long-term personal care due to age, illness or disability and satisfy the overseas-care requirement.
What does long-term personal care mean?
The applicant must require help performing everyday tasks such as washing, dressing or cooking because they cannot perform those tasks independently.
What if a relative can care for them overseas?
The Home Office considers whether that person can reasonably provide the required care, taking account of their location, circumstances, commitments and willingness.
What if professional care exists but is unaffordable?
Unaffordability can be relevant, but the applicant must explain why the required care cannot be funded even with the sponsor's financial help.
Can I pay for my parent's care overseas and still get ADR?
Potentially only if the evidence shows that arrangement cannot provide the required care sustainably. Existing successful sponsor-funded care can point against the overseas-care requirement.
Can I apply for ADR from inside the UK?
A first ADR application must be made from outside the UK. A person cannot switch into the route from another category in the UK.
Does ADR require £29,000 income?
No. The sponsor must demonstrate adequate maintenance, accommodation and care rather than the Partner-route minimum-income threshold.
What happens if the sponsor is British or settled?
A successful entry-clearance applicant is granted settlement under the ADR Rules.
What if the sponsor has protection status?
A qualifying applicant can receive limited permission in line with the sponsor and may later apply for settlement when the sponsor reaches settlement, subject to the relevant requirements.
Does the sponsor have to sign an undertaking?
Yes. The sponsor must accept responsibility for maintenance, accommodation and care for the relevant period.
How ENS Immigration Advice Can Help
ENS Immigration Advice can assess Adult Dependent Relative applications involving long-term care needs, unavailable or unaffordable overseas care, family-care arrangements, sponsor undertakings, and adequate maintenance and accommodation.
Looking for a visa based on your relationship with your British or settled child, rather than your need for personal care? That is a different route — see the UK Parent Visa.
These cases are fact-sensitive and evidence-led. Where a human-rights claim is refused, an appeal to the immigration tribunal may follow; tribunal representation is a separate specialist service and may be required in addition to application-stage assistance.
Disclaimer. This page provides general information about UK immigration law and does not constitute legal advice on any individual application. ADR eligibility depends on the individual facts and evidence, and requirements may change. Confirm the current position on GOV.UK and seek professional advice before making an application or relying on this information.
Source basis: the UK Immigration Rules Appendix FM (family life) and the related Home Office family-life caseworker guidance published on GOV.UK. Immigration Rules and guidance change; confirm the current version on GOV.UK before applying.
Speak to ENS Immigration Advice
Professional assistance with Adult Dependent Relative applications — long-term care needs, overseas-care evidence, sponsor undertakings and maintenance.